Zecoda

Dev tools

design to code converter

SHOW HN2019

Zecoda

Building websites from Sketch using deep learning – public launch

zecoda.com

#sketch to code#sketch to html#front-end code generation#ui code generator

140points
68comments
#320of 2,195 in 2019
Top 15%of 2019 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

3 positive, 17 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 9 critical, out of 32 comments about the project. Thread score -0.21.

Idea: 1 for, 4 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 againstPricing: 0 for, 1 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Impressive and novel product concept

    From 2 comments
    • This looks impressive, kudos. Definately a novelty from HN audience standpoint. By why would I as typical customer care how an agency (who you are substituting) converts sketch…
      NewsAware on HN
    • Products like this are why I got out of FE dev. The overwhelming majority of what most FE devs do can and will be automated. Stringing together various API's to match a sketch…
      diveanon on HN
  • Would save front-end developers time

    From 2 comments
    • that's great, it would definitely reduce the amount of time I have to spent implementing sketch files. Do you have support for slicing sub-sections of a sketch file? As I work on…
      beaconstudios on HN
    • Products like this are why I got out of FE dev. The overwhelming majority of what most FE devs do can and will be automated. Stringing together various API's to match a sketch…
      diveanon on HN

Objections

  • Heavy reliance on human validation makes the AI label misleading

    From 3 comments
    • I am skeptical with what people is calling 'AI' this days. I was expecting to see the generated code before subscription, there is a lot of sass that clain they have AI, but is…
      wired_devil on HN
    • This looks a lot like a WYSIWYG editor, is that a fair description? e.g using ML in place of some deterministic, manually defined heuristics for code generation. I can imagine…
      tomxor on HN
    • I had the same reaction... Is "AI" a selling point to your likely customers? Otherwise it might be worth de-emphasizing it. You could turn it around... "We have humans generate…
      janekm on HN
  • Subscription pricing is confusing for one-off conversions

    From 2 comments
    • Why only a subscription based payment model ? If I only want to 'convert' one sketch is there an option ? Or do I have to process my 1 sketch in lets say your turnaround time is…
      bilekas on HN
    • One price and unlimited artboard would look more beneficial. Only 3 sounds limiting even though people may not use more than 3. Like unlimited gmail vs old 2 gb yahoo mail.
      cryptozeus on HN
  • No free trial and no account deletion or support access

    From 1 comment
    • So a few problems: 1. No trial of any kind without subscribing (yes I know about the refund option). 2. No way to contact support when logged in. 3. No way to delete my account…
      dynjo on HN
  • Demo timing suggests code was pre-generated

    From 1 comment
    • Just playing devil`s advocate here, in the demo video : 1) Part 1 : You upload the file to the application and say we will run AI in background and a human verifies the file…
      nautical on HN

Requests

  • Examples of generated code and sample sites

    From 3 comments
    • Would be great if there was a section showing some sample example sites. That was the first thing I was looking for and it seems like an omission on the frontpage.
      DrJid on HN
    • yes, specifically the code it generates. I realize theres human intervention, but on average what is the output.
      nicnash on HN
    • Cool! If you're not planning to already, I'd suggest showing the code you produce on a "for developers" page. I'd want to know if for example the function/variable names are…
      iudqnolq on HN
  • Free trial or free tier

    From 2 comments
    • So a few problems: 1. No trial of any kind without subscribing (yes I know about the refund option). 2. No way to contact support when logged in. 3. No way to delete my account…
      dynjo on HN
    • Why only a subscription based payment model ? If I only want to 'convert' one sketch is there an option ? Or do I have to process my 1 sketch in lets say your turnaround time is…
      bilekas on HN
  • Support for slicing sub-sections of a Sketch file

    From 1 comment
    • that's great, it would definitely reduce the amount of time I have to spent implementing sketch files. Do you have support for slicing sub-sections of a sketch file? As I work on…
      beaconstudios on HN
  • Figma and React output

    From 1 comment
    • Looks interesting! How do you generate the hover states, if they are not in the sketch file? Do you have to structure the layers/components in a certain way, or do you use ML…
      dharma1 on HN

Questions

  • How the model was trained and whether it uses a neural net

    From 1 comment
    • This is so cool. How did you build this? How did you train your net? Does it even use a net? I'd love to know about how this works!
      srikanthsrnvs on HN
  • How hover states and constraints are inferred from Sketch files

    From 2 comments
    • Looks interesting! How do you generate the hover states, if they are not in the sketch file? Do you have to structure the layers/components in a certain way, or do you use ML…
      dharma1 on HN
    • I'm doing something similar-ish (not AI but attempting to allow people to "draw" their UI and convert to a constraint-based layout ie HTML/CSS). It seems to me that the…
      beaconstudios on HN
  • Whether complex forms and app logic are handled

    From 2 comments
    • Can it build complex forms too or is this just "the robot makes a squarespace website"?
      void445be54d48a on HN
    • There's more to building your UI than just implementing the design. Even if using this tool all the logic and state management you have to do by yourself. Putting together the…
      ng12 on HN

Alternatives named

  • Freelancers converting designs to HTML

    From 1 comment
    • You can get someone on any of the freelancing sites to convert your design to HTML and even a WordPress site - at the cost of five bucks. For 30 bucks you also get a design. If…
      z3t4 on HN
  • Designpickle unlimited design subscription

    From 1 comment
    • Check out designpickle.com. They have unlimited design work for a set price per month. The founder has been on a number of podcasts and always gets asked if people abuse this…
      giarc on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

Add a badge to your READMEShown on HackerShow
[![Shown on HackerShow](https://hackershow.org/badge.svg)](https://hackershow.org/show/21656864)